


Divergent Points - Onichan

by Keyseeker



Series: Pointsverse [7]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, He helps and protects his friends as best he can, Lila Rossi Redemption, Lila Rossi's Lies Are Exposed, Lila gets help, Nino is an awesome person, Nor is she trying to hurt anyone anymore, Well she's not an active threat anymore at any rate, kinda sorta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:35:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26730754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keyseeker/pseuds/Keyseeker
Summary: He frowned, running to catch up with her.He’d never seen her so miserable.She’d put on acts before, but… this was different. More genuine.She glanced up at him, looking surprised for a moment before shaking herself, plastering on that fake smile of hers.But he knew what he saw.Maybe there was more to her than he thought?-------------------------------------Nino talks to Lila's mother, both of them getting a new perspective on what Lila's like and why she does the things she does.
Series: Pointsverse [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1511441
Comments: 36
Kudos: 168





	Divergent Points - Onichan

Nino walked to school.

It’d been a few weeks since he and his friends had been sucked into some salty sentient alternate dimension. 

They’d all been extremely relieved to be out of there. Though his return to his body hadn’t been the most pleasant thing around.

Seriously, he hadn’t even THOUGHT of where some of those tubes comatose patients were hooked up to would go. Oh HELL did he learn though.

...Maybe time to get back on subject. He didn’t need to dwell on that train of thought any longer. Wouldn’t change what’d happened and hopefully he wouldn’t have to deal with it again any time soon.

Marinette’d been bringing lots of little gifts to their get-togethers and reassuring them how much they meant to her, how much she cared about them. It got to the point where they’d needed to take her aside and reassure her that they KNEW she cared, KNEW she wasn’t Saltinette. 

They all knew, including Marinette, but… well that didn’t stop anxiety. And when Marinette got anxious she tended to try to reach out and do something to help with it, to try and assert some control over it - in this case gift-giving and verbal affirmation, since gift-giving was the main way she communicated her feelings to other people and how she most easily perceived them. 

As for verbal affirmation?

It was something she found valuable, something that they all worked to do with each other more… but it was a love language she’d grown especially in-tune to because of how much Adrien needed it. 

With seeing his insecurities during the Syren attack? With knowing what his father was like?

She was going to make sure all her friends knew how much they meant to her.

They’d check in with her whenever she seemed to be a little too frantic or harried, especially with stammering over her words when she became afraid she’d said something to hurt one of them. They just calmly reassured her over and over that they were ok, that she was fine, and gave her small smiles whenever they could to let her know they weren’t upset or hurt. 

If she seemed overly focused on needing to DO something to help, on baking a ton of macarons, on needing to be there for every event any of them went to, of wanting to be supportive to the point that she hurt herself, they’d pull her into a hug and reassure her she was enough. That their bond and their conception of her as a person wasn’t so fragile that one wrong move could break it. And just squeezed her tight until her breathing slowed down and she could manage on her own.

She’d slowly been doing better. Her anxiety was still definitely there, but it wasn’t as all-consuming as it once had been.

Not that everyone else was completely unscathed. Adrien still flinched when he saw that statue of himself and Ladybug in the park. He’d stare at it for a moment as if reassuring himself that it was fully intact. That no bloodthirsty mob had taken to vandalizing his statue as a proxy for himself.

Marinette just avoided the statue entirely.

Alya’d been avoiding Lila as much as she could - difficult to do since she’d purposely set it up so she’d be sitting right behind her, but she managed. Not like Lila wanted to talk to her anyway. Those salty scenarios supposedly springing from her becoming one of Lila’s sycophants just freaked her out too much. She KNEW she could never be dragged down that path, that her very self had rebelled against it so hard even Saltinette couldn’t force her into it, but… well, like with Marinette, that didn’t stop the thoughts, stop the anxiety.

Adrien mostly took the whole thing in stride, aside from the statue thing. Considering how much trauma he’d been through already it was probably a drop in the bucket.

He was glad Adrien could function well even with what he’d been through during their adventure.

(He was more concerned that Adrien had to develop his trauma coping skills to this point.)

Which left himself mostly monitoring the Lila situation, as the one with the least trauma. Alya’d apologized to him a few times for not being able to help more.

He’d just smiled and reassured her, giving her a hug if she could use one.

The three of them could take as much time to heal as they needed.

He’d protect them until they were better.

After all, wasn’t that what a Guardian should do?

Lila hadn’t actually been doing much of anything. She told lies here and there, but nothing that’d make major waves. 

She’d also tried to finagle it so she and Adrien would be in close quarters a few times and got a little too close to him.

He’d subtly intervened whenever he saw that happening, pushing his way between them or finding some excuse to call Adrien over and separate them.

Lila seemed suspicious at how often he ‘conveniently’ got in the way, but she hadn’t called him out on it.

Just as well. He’d like to maintain at least some plausible deniability of being a neutral party. Not much considering that his girlfriend was well known to dislike Lila, but it was something.

None of them were sure what to do about Lila. Originally they’d fantasized about exposing her, finding something to get her thrown out of school. 

After seeing the vengeance-driven Saltinette? They’d all agreed that whatever they did about Lila should be based firmly on stopping her from hurting people, not on enacting retribution. They’d seen how far that could go.

Not that it helped much. Not when they still had no ideas-

Wait. Was that?

He peered closer, keeping behind her so she wouldn’t see.

Yep. Definitely Lila.

And if she was coming out of that apartment just before school -

It was probably where she lived!

She’d been very cagey about her address or her parent’s full names or most things that could be used to locate them. Not that he’d pressed too hard, but it did seem suspicious.

Probably because a bunch of her lies would collapse if they could talk to her parents.

Lila herself though?

He frowned, running to catch up with her. 

He’d never seen her so miserable. 

She’d put on acts before, but… this was different. More genuine.

She glanced up at him, looking surprised for a moment before shaking herself, plastering on that fake smile of hers.

But he knew what he saw.

Maybe there was more to her than he thought?

“Is something wrong, Lila?”

“Uh no, I’m doing great! It’s just that… my mom wants me to go with her to this fancy embassy function tonight, but I’ve got way too much homework and I’m so behind after being away for the first term. I’m just gonna have to tell her no. She’ll be so upset…”

He wasn’t sure whether any of that was a lie, but with the exaggerated expressions and her leading statements, she was pretty obviously trying to manipulate him into helping her somehow - probably not in a way he  _ should _ be helping her.

Best not to take the bait. “Ah yeah. Bummer.”

“Adrien said he’d help me, but I don’t want to bother him with it. He’s probably forgotten anyway. He might think I’ve got a crush on him, just like all those other girls who are constantly hanging all over him.”

_ Like you? _ He wanted to add.

He was pretty sure she was jabbing at Chloe and maybe even Marinette - though if she was trying to implicate Marinette that was a pretty poor way of doing it. She didn’t hang off of him, at least not when it wasn’t wanted. They’d certainly been very touchy-feely lately, but it was VERY clear that Adrien was fine with that.

Even before the Reveal when Marinette and Adrien were still stuck in that Lovesquare (oh WOW had Alya ranted about that one), her clinging to him was decidedly NOT a problem - if anything she had trouble being in his vicinity. Though she’d gotten better with that over time.

As for the rest of it? No way his bro had agreed to help her. Not without telling him. 

She was pushing pretty hard without  _ outright _ asking him to ask for Adrien’s help on her behalf. Probably trying to set up a situation where Adrien couldn’t refuse without looking like the bad guy and hoping that social pressure would force him to do what she wanted.

After needing to fend her off from Adrien multiple times? He wasn’t going to allow that situation. He  _ certainly _ wasn’t going to help set it up.

But while he could nip this one in the bud… what about the next one? 

He needed to try to settle this. Soon.

Before his friends got hurt.

They were still trying to heal from the salt worlds. 

Lila was the last thing they needed to worry about.

Best to brush her off for now and try to figure out what to do about her later. “Adrien’s been very busy lately,” he told her apologetically. “Even if he did remember he might just not want to bring it up because he feels so bad about not being able to help. I’d just let it go for now.”

“Oh…” she said looking down at the ground in an exaggerated display of sadness, clearly different from her more natural-looking melancholy from before.

Luckily school wasn’t far so Lila didn’t have time to come up with some other plan.

And he had time to come up with one of his own.

* * *

  
  


Taking a deep breath, he knocked on the door of Lila’s family’s apartment.

Lila always ate at school for lunch so he figured it was a safe time to try to talk to her parents. See whether gathering more information that way could help. He didn’t have much proof that Lila was making her claims - though he could get other classmates to corroborate that at least - and none for her making threats besides Alya and Marinette’s word which he was betting wouldn’t be enough to convince her parents unless they already thought poorly of Lila.

He knocked.

No answer.

And knocked again.

Waited a minute.

Knocked a third time.

Didn’t look like anyone was home.

Not that big a surprise. A lot of parents were gone during the day. 

Inconvenient though.

He’d just have to wait until next time Lila was preoccupied and check back again.

* * *

  
  


...Okay, this was getting ridiculous.

It’d been two weeks. He’d checked every time he could find that Lila was preoccupied while he was free - which had been pretty often lately - and no one ever answered. He was beginning to suspect he was mistaken and no one actually lived in that apartment.

Marinette, Adrien, and Alya had started to notice his frequent absences and began asking questions. The three of them were talking and healing and just… really getting to enjoy themselves again. They’d been running around Paris while suited up almost every night getting to enjoy the freedom the Miraculous offered.

Which was especially important for Adrien; both worlds targeting him had emphasized stealing his Miraculous. Getting to be Chat was a good reminder that those worlds were false.

Alya just enjoyed having that level of freedom and control, especially with how the worlds targeting her had tried to bend her to their will, trying to brainwash and even physically force her to do what they wanted.

He just told them he was figuring out what to do about Lila and not to worry about it.

They’d seemed concerned but didn’t press the subject.

Not that Lila was the ONLY reason he’d had more absences lately. Fu’d been training him some more which took up some time.

At least he could read some of the Guardian literature while on stake out.

Some adult had to be home at some point.

Right?

Plus Lila was sleeping over at a friend’s place today; hence why he decided to do this stake out today and not some other day. It wouldn’t do as much good if he finally caught a parent or guardian entering but was unable to talk to them due to Lila being there.

So he waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Luckily his parents thought he was sleeping over at Marinette’s. Not entirely a lie either. Her balcony had a decent view of Lila’s (suspected) apartment, albeit a distance away.

She frowned and asked him whether he was sure when he said he wanted to stake out and watch for Lila, but he just nodded and smiled at her. She stayed with him for a lot of it, even proposing taking shifts but… yeah he wasn’t gonna do that. She needed all the rest and relaxation she could get.

Wait, was that…

Aha! 

Finally, an adult heading to the apartment. 

So someone else DID live there!

He quickly checked his phone.

Yep. All the evidence he and Alya had assembled since Lila came back to school was right there. Most of it probably wouldn’t be relevant - this was geared more towards potentially exposing her to classmates and their teacher, not to her mom, so it was geared towards the lies she told THEM, not what she told her parents - but some of it might still be useful, depending on what Lila’d told her parents.

He headed out from the bakery and to Lila’s apartment, knocking on the door.

Finally, after probably a dozen different times trying, someone answered.

A woman opened the door.

Judging by how similar she looked to Lila? Most likely her mom.

She glanced up briefly from her phone. “Oh hi, are you one of Lila’s friends? I’m afraid she isn’t here right now.”

He took a deep breath. “Yeah. That’s why I came. I need to talk to you about your daughter.”

Taking in the seriousness in his voice and the intensity in his expression, she put down her phone, devoting her full attention to him, alarm slowly creeping into her voice. “What happened? Is something wrong? Is my daughter okay?!”

“As far as I know she’s fine - physically anyway.” His eyes hardened. “But there is some trouble WITH her.”

She frowned. “...Huh?”

He sighed. “I have some things to show you.”

* * *

  
  


Ms. Rossi sat on a stool in the kitchen, just leaning back and staring into the distance. 

He couldn't blame her. She’d been skeptical at first that Lila was making all these claims, that he might have just misinterpreted stuff she said. Which he supposed was a reasonable thing to think. It was certainly a possible thing to happen and he couldn’t prove otherwise… with SOME things.

But others? 

“Wait, Lila’s been akumatized?! That can’t be right, she would’ve told me!”

Nino just stared. Not everyone kept track of EVERY akuma but… seriously? It wasn’t like it was a major secret Lila had been Volpina and Chameleon. Volpina in particular just looked like Lila in a costume. It wasn’t THAT dramatic a transformation.

He just flipped through his phone bringing up old news reports and akumas.

Ms. Rossi watched, eyes wide, as her akumatized daughter ran around fighting Ladybug and Chat Noir.

The Volpina fight was especially interesting. “Wait, isn’t that Lila’s boyfriend? That Adrien boy who’s all over the billboards?”

Nino’s head shot up. “She is NOT his girlfriend. They’re not even friends.”

“Young man you must be mistaken! Lila’s told me several times about how much he adores her. She wouldn’t lie to me!”

HAH.

He kinda wished Adrien was here to disprove it now.

Ms. Rossi frowned. “I guess Lila was one of the few people Ladybug was able to save. The school had to close down for so long because of all the akumatizations going on.”

...What.

“The school never closed down. We’ve missed maybe half of a school day sometimes because of some akumatization, but… yeah that’s about it.”

Ms. Rossi blinked at him. “But Lila had to stay home all last semester because of that!”

“Did you google to see whether the school was closed at least?”

“I- I thought I did.”

“Maybe you should try it now?”

With a few quick types she looked up the school. Looked through their akuma procedures. And then frantically started googling everything she could about akumas and the Miraculous holders.

Nino sat back as her face slowly fell, reality crashing in as she saw more and more of what was really going on.

Eventually she sighed, looking like she’d aged about ten years in ten minutes. “...I’m going to have to talk to the principal. And this time Lila isn’t talking me out of it.”

Looking up she gave him a small, bitter smile. “We’ve always bounced around a lot for my job which meant Lila didn’t have much time to form firm friendships. Between that and the divorce a few years ago, plus work being busier than ever… well. Lila got left by the wayside a lot. I thought she was fine since she began talking about all these great friends she has, even having a boyfriend now. And when she told me the school was closed down but that the school had let her handle most things, I just… didn’t question it. She was one fewer thing, one fewer person I had to worry about.”

She sat back heavily and closed her eyes. “I should’ve tried to pay closer attention to what she was saying, looked at things for myself. I might not have been able to spend much more time with her than I have been - my job keeps me really busy - but for something as major as her school being closed, I should’ve looked it up myself. 

I just… wanted to believe Lila was right. She told me what I wanted to hear; that she was fine and handling everything.”

She laughed wryly. “I guess in a way she WAS handling everything. Just not in a way I’d approve of.” 

Ah.

Adrien may have been right when he thought Lila was lonely.

It just went deeper than that.

But he could give Ms. Rossi some small comfort at least. 

“She DOES have friends, people she hangs out with. If she’s told you she’s at a friend’s house on a sleepover? That’s true. I’ve been sent a few selfies of her with our classmates. She’s pretty well-liked. I doubt they’ll be happy to find out that Lila’s been lying to them but… I don’t think she’ll be abandoned over some lies. Not unless they were malicious and hurtful.” 

Most of the lies she’d told hadn’t been intended to cause harm except for when she told Adrien that Alya and Marinette were backstabbers and just using him - though that may have been less of a lie and more of an actual belief on her part. 

Aside from that? They were usually pretty harmless. He wouldn’t put it past her to blatantly lie for malicious purposes, he didn’t think she was above that, but he hadn’t seen much sign of her doing so to date.

If Lila could get the help she needed, maybe she could be set on the right path before she did something it was hard to come back from.

Ms. Rossi gave a more genuine smile at that. “I’m glad. Maybe… maybe this is something that can be fixed. My boss has been suggesting I take a vacation soon anyway. I’d been planning on putting it off a bit longer but - well, this is important. I won’t make a final decision until I investigate more, but I think it might be time for my daughter and I to go visit my parents for a few weeks, far away from Paris and Hawkmoth and the risk of akumatization. I think we have some things to work out.”

* * *

  
  


A few days later Lila disappeared, telling everyone that her mom was taking her on vacation with her - an actual truth for once.

There was definitely a method with her lies. They either allowed her to exert more control over her circumstances or were things she WISHED was true. He guessed she didn’t see the need to lie there since she liked the idea of going on vacation with her mom. 

Come to think of it, while she’d lied about how much time she got to spend with her mom and the types of things they’d do together before, she didn’t lie about say, her mom’s profession - she really DID work at the embassy. That wasn’t something she really seemed to wish was different, though he suspected that she lied about some of her specific accomplishments, making up grander-sounding ones than were probably true.

Lila still kept in touch with the rest of the class and nothing much happened for a couple weeks.

Until one day he came into class and saw a group of his classmates muttering together.

He frowned. “What’s going on?”

Mylene looked up. “Lila just called and… well… she told us some stuff.”

She winced. “I guess you were right to warn us not to take everything she said at face value.”

“It’s okay; I get it. You didn’t want to believe that someone would lie to you.”

At least she’d fessed up.

“What’re you going to do?” he asked curiously.

Mylene chewed her lip. “I’m not happy she lied and manipulated us, but… well, not everything was a sham. The fun times we had together? They still matter. So… for me at least? I’m not gonna let this stop us from being friends, so long as she doesn’t do it again. Some of the others are more upset - Alix walked out when she heard, I think she’s cooling her head first - but that’s my take on it.”

Nino nodded.

Lila’s actions had consequences and each person she’d lied to would have to decide for themselves how they felt about it. 

But at least she wouldn’t be completely alienated.

* * *

  
  
  


Lila returned a few weeks after that seeming more subdued. A few of the people who were in her posse formerly now avoided her, but they didn’t try to do anything against her. They just only engaged with her casually. He suspected that they’d warm back up after awhile once the sting had faded some more.

Speaking of avoiding people, Lila’d been avoiding Adrien, Marinette, and Alya. Though he didn’t get the sense she hated or disliked them anymore - she almost seemed ashamed. The few times he’d caught her glancing their way she’d looked sad more than anything. 

With great relief he found that she’d stopped trying to invade Adrien’s personal space and harass him. He actually felt safe leaving them together for short periods of time, though he still had some reservations and wouldn’t want to purposely set them up in that kind of situation.

She also happened to be busy regularly on certain days twice a week, shortly after school. When some of his classmates asked her about it she said she’d been signed up for some violin lessons. He heavily suspected that that was one of the few lies she was still telling though. He’d seen some worksheets poking out of her bag lately that looked less like anything a music teacher would assign, and more like homework a therapist might assign.

That was fine. She might still be lying, but well… it genuinely wasn’t anyone else’s business whether she was seeing a therapist or not. He might not be fond of her, but she still deserved privacy. If she felt safer telling people she was going to violin lessons than that she was going to therapy, then so be it. Not like he and his friends had never told lies when they’d felt it was necessary.

He was just glad that Lila was finally getting the help she needed.

**Author's Note:**

> I figure after everything that happened there'd be some lingering trauma, with Marinette having the most because of the way Divergent Points - ML Salt centered around her (plus seeing herself used for that would be VERY disturbing). Alya and Adrien would have a fair amount as well, but considering how Adrien's reacted to the trauma of losing his mom, Gabriel's abuse, Desperada, etc., I don't think it'd be all that visible with him.
> 
> I have no love for Lila. I'll still happily read fics that include bashing her and exposing her, at least when doing something else that I massively enjoy, when that's not the sole purpose of the fic.
> 
> But I've seen it done a million ways already, and have seen so many of those fics just turn into warping every other character into a horrible human being and exacting extreme vengeance and I'm just... I'm tired of it. 
> 
> At this point I just want Lila to not be a threat anymore.


End file.
